I want to sing
by amour ancien
Summary: Battousai's life was revolved around one thing: getting the job done. He had no distractions and had forgotten to feel any emotion. That is until a certain girl with iridescent blue eyes and a haunting voice came into the picture.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: As much as I wish I could sit here and claim that I am the genius that has created the wonderful story of Rurouni Kenshin, sadly, I am not. I don't own any of these characters.

_Meet me on my vast veranda_

_my sweet untouched Miranda_

_and while the seagulls are crying_

_we fall but our souls are flying_

-the decemberists

The rain that clung to every curve of his body was warm. He walked the familiar alley ways that he usually took once a mission was complete. The dried blood was already being washed away by the rainstorm. The assassin was tired, and wanted nothing more but to become isolated in this world. He finally reached headquarters, where he could hear drunken laughter. The silhouettes of samurai could be seen through the window.

"Battousai!" An extremely intoxicated samurai bellowed out, the moment the assassin made his appearance.

"Come join us! have a drink!"

Before battousai could protest, he felt a pair of hands push him forward into the chaos of the party. He hated being forced to participate in these infantile gatherings. He found himself sitting in a circle among various drunk men.

"Ah battousai, nice to see you're joining us." a hand patted his shoulder, as another sober body sat next to him.

"Didn't have much of a choice Akemi." replied battousai. He was in a bad mood. Actually, he spent most of his time in a bad mood. Akemi chuckled at his retort.

"Did you hear? Apparently Katsura has taken in some singer he found on the streets to provide us with some entertainment"

"hmm" Battousai could care less who Katsura did and didn't take in. All he wanted was to be left alone, and to wash himself. Despite the rain washing away the visible blood, he still felt the intangible sticky substance all over his body. He closed his eyes, blocking himself from the rest of the party, going deep inside himself.

His thoughts were quickly disturbed by several hollers and whooping from the drunk men. A few catcalls here and there. Whistles echoed throughout the room.

"There she is." Akemi faced battousai, a smile on his face. He raised his saki cup, and quickly downed the drink.

Battousai looked up through his blood red bangs, to see whoever it was that was causing all this annoyance. She had her back turned to her audience, she appeared to be playing with her long black raven hair. She was tying it up into a graceful ponytail.

Any man with eyes could notice she had a nice body. Like any other man, battousai took notice of this. Unlike every other man in the room, he took no interest in this woman. He chose not to have those kinds of relationships. He didn't want to trouble himself with such a distraction. He looked down and tried to go deep inside himself again.

And then she began to sing.

Every man in the room grew silent, the sober and the drunk. Several pairs of eyes looked up. Beautiful melodies came out of her mouth, every note was hit perfectly. Her voice was haunting, yet alluring. Her eyes were closed, it seemed that she too, was lost in her own voice.

You could almost feel the notes brushing against your ears, whispering and comforting. She captured the room, with one single song. She sang and sang and sang. With every passing song, the room cheered for more.

"I believe Our Kaoru is becoming a little tired from all this singing." Katsura stood up, he could easily tell that Kaoru was out of breath after the 8th song. All the samurai were disappointed that they would have to wait to hear more of the Woman's singing. "thank you Katsura." Kaoru said, giving a smile.

"Ah I should be the one thanking you Kaoru, for letting us all hear that beautiful voice of yours." Kaoru blushed, and murmured a thank you.

"I'm sure you're very tired, I'll have one of my men show you to your room."

"Himura!" Katsura yelled out, waving his hand forward. Kaoru was exhausted. As grateful as she was that Katsura picked her off from the street, and offered her a job and a place to stay, she wanted nothing but to sleep.

"Yes sir?" a voice came out of nowhere, and she felt someone behind her. She gave out a shriek and jumped a little. She quickly turned around to face the most interesting man she's ever seen.

Battousai was amused by how easily he scared her. He looked down at the girl, smirking. He was met by a pair of fierce iridescent blue eyes. He was taken aback by what he could see in her eyes. She certainly was not like every other woman he's come across. He quickly shook off the feeling, and looked up at Katsura, wondering what it was that he wanted.

"Please show Kaoru here her room, she will be staying in the room next to yours."

Battousai stared blankly at Katsura. Why didn't Katsura get some other man to do this? He was an assassin, not a babysitter. Battousai gritted his teeth, he was not one to refuse an order. Katsura merely smiled, knowing what Battousai was feeling right now. He turned and walked away. "see you in the morning." and he was gone.

Without saying a word to Kaoru, battousai turned and walked to his room. Kaoru quickly followed him, noting how cold this man was.

"I'm Kamiya Kaoru" she said, feeling she should break the awkward silence. She got silence in return.

"erm...what's your name?" She said, trying her best to be friendly, but she could already feel her temper increasing at the difficult man.

"Battousai."

_Battousai?_ Kaoru thought to herself. _Where have I heard that name before? _She shrugged the thought off, she was never connected to the outside world, She was too busy wondering the streets for a job or shelter. Kaoru was too absorbed in her thoughts to notice Battousai had stopped at her room, she continued walking, and smacked right into Battousai's toned back. She had hit him so hard, that she bounced off, and found herself tumbling backwards.

She shut her eyes, bracing herself for impact with the floor. Before her head had a chance to meet the ground, she felt a hand around her wrist, violently pulling her forward. She found herself in an upright position, looking into the cold amber eyes of Battousai. His hand, it was freezing. She could practically feel the warmth being sucked out of her flesh.

He let go of her delicate wrist, looking extremely annoyed. "Watch it girl." he hissed. He turned around and retreated into his room. Kaoru stood there, shocked and confused whether she should be grateful that he saved her from a painful fall, or to be extremely pissed at how rude the stranger was. She was too tired to feel anything at this point. She sighed, and went into her room.

She couldn't remember the last time she had her own room, and her own place to sleep. She wanted to savor the fact this was the first time in years she could have a comfortable night's sleep. She laid on her futon, and found her thoughts drifting to a certain amber eyed man.

A/N: wow! My first chapter! This is the first fanfiction I have ever attempted to write. So I apologize if it's amateur-ish. It's short I know, hopefully as the story goes on the chapters will get longer. I will get better, I promise!


	2. Musical Sounds

A/N: I don't own Rk! : (

_But her life is so beautiful_

_As memories continue to grow_

_Into beautiful things that spring from these rows_

_With their musical names and musical sound_

_Beautiful things that spring from these rows_

_With their musical names and musical sounds, and musical sounds_

-Eisley

Kaoru was awaken by the singing birds in the morning . She couldn't help but smile, she hadn't slept that good in years. She stretched and stood up, looked out the window, and then it dawned on her that she had no idea what Katsura expected out of her when she was not singing for his men. Would she even be performing anytime soon? Kaoru frowned at the thought of not knowing what she was supposed to do with herself. Usually her days were spent either begging for work or food. Now that she had both, she didn't know what to do.

Kaoru looked down at herself, embarrassed of her dirty clothing. Her door suddenly slid open, and an unusually peppy woman entered her room.

"Good morning Miss Kamiya! My name is Tae, Katsura sent me to show you around!" The woman was petite and awfully smiley. Her outfit told Kaoru that Tae must have been a maid here. Kaoru smiled and followed her out into the hallway. There appeared to be a garden in the middle of the hotel that Kaoru hadn't noticed before. It was breathtaking. _I'll have to try to spend my free time here _Kaoru smiled admiring the impressive garden.

"Beautiful isn't it Miss kaoru?" Tae said, noticing Kaoru's eyes widen as she stared blissfully at the garden. "yes it is." Kaoru responded, still taking in the garden.

"Miss Kaoru! weren't you wearing that dress yesterday?" Tae exclaimed. Kaoru looked down at her dirty dress, feeling her cheeks start to burn out of embarrassment. "oh.uhh..yeah..this is the only outfit I have.." Kaoru looked down at her feet in shame.

"No worries! I have clothes you can borrow until you get paid..this way!" Tae said, clapping her hands together happily. Kaoru continued following Tae down the empty hallways, every once in a while they would pass a maid or a samurai. "Here we are.." Tae said, leading Kaoru into her room. She opened her closet, and took out a few of her old kimonos and handed it to Kaoru.

Kaoru fingered the kimonos, smiling to herself. She could just barely afford her one dress...now she had 4. "Thank you so much Miss Tae!" Kaoru beamed, Tae returned the smile, standing up and shoving the rest of her clothing into the packed closet. "My pleasure Miss kaoru, shall we continue with your tour?" Kaoru nodded, following Tae out of the room.

"Really there's not much to tour here...most of the rooms belong to the samurai. There's the bathouse, the main lobby area which you've already seen of course, and the kitchen." Kaoru nodded, taking in whatever Tae would tell her.

"Hm if you want to help me prepare breakfast, you should change soon" Tae hinted heavily, patting Kaoru on the shoulder. Kaoru's eyes widened with joy, immediately getting the hint. "Oh! of course! I'd be happy to help, I have nothing else to do." Kaoru smiled heading back to her room to change into one of the Kimonos that had been graciously given to her.

Kaoru decided she should probably wear one of the less flamboyant Kimonos considering her job right now was to cook a hot meal, not look pretty for Katsura's men. Tae was already waiting for Kaoru out in the hall, a smile still plastered on her face.

"Ready?"

"yes Miss Tae" Kaoru smiled, following Tae into the kitchen. There were about 5 other maids there, all working quite quickly, trying to get enough food cooked for all the hungover men. "Usually the first thing they do when they wake up is go into the dojo to train, then they all come here with empty stomaches, which is where we come in" Tae winked at Kaoru as she started boiling water for tea. "If you could start on the rice, that would be great" Tae suggested, turning her back to Kaoru, finishing up the tea.

And that's when reality sunk in for Kaoru. Her cooking was absolutely horrendous. She couldn't feed Katsura and his men rice made from her hands. She stared blankly at the bag of rice, wondering if she should just come clean to Tae and save herself the humiliation.

"Ah Kaoru, we're running a bit behind today, forget the rice. Just get the silverware ready please"

A wave of relief rushed through Kaoru as she picked up the tea set Tae had just set down and headed to the main dining room. Kaoru was enjoying herself as she set the silverware out, happy she could help by doing such a simple task. Samurai began slowly filtering into the room, they all seemed quite exhausted. Their shoulders were hunched and most of them were breathing heavily. Kaoru stared at them blankly as they went around her taking their seats.

The only two bodies that entered the room that didn't seem to be phased by exhaustion at all were Katsura and Battousai's. Katsura quietly took his seat at the head of the table, a small smile lingering on his lips.

"Oh! uh...Good Morning" Kaoru blurted out to everyone, trying to give her best morning smile. They all stared at her dumbly, she could tell right away that most of them were hungover. She continued smiling as they all stared at her.

"Good morning Miss Kaoru" Katsura finally replied, breaking the awkward silence that filled the air. Kaoru let out a sigh and realized that there was an empty seat at the table. Where had Battousai gone? She shrugged her shoulders and turned back into the kitchen where she was greeted with a a tray filled with steaming food delicately placed.

"This is specifically for Battousai, usually he eats in his room, you'll have to deliver this to him" Tae said sternly handing Kaoru the tray. It had been the first time that day Tae wasn't smiling, apparently anything that had to do with Battousai was taken very seriously.

"Yes Miss Tae, I'll make sure he'll get it."

Kaoru trudged out of the room, reluctant to see the cold man again. _This is going to be so awkward. _

She remembered exactly how to get to his room, despite the many long hallways. She finally reached his room, wondering if she should just enter or leave the tray at the door. She would much rather just leave it and get out of there, but she knew it was her duty to be sure he got it.

"erm...Battousai? I have your breakfast here." She quietly called out. After about 10 seconds of silence, Kaoru began to become impatient.

"Come in."

ah! a response! She managed to balance the tray on one hand as she carefully entered the dark room. She squinted her eyes, trying to get adjusted to the weird lighting.

"put it over there" were the only words that came out of his mouth. Kaoru carefully put the tray down where Battousai had pointed, and stood back up, wondering if she should make an attempt at starting a conversation. By the silence Kaoru could tell he was not one to socialize. She sighed and headed back to the door, her back turned to him. And she was gone.

_Dammit_ Battousai thought angrily to himself. He despised getting used to new things, always too much trouble. This Kaoru girl was definitely something very new to this place. Battousai took a sip from the tea that was given to him, and continued to eat in solitude. That was how he liked it.

"Miss Kaoru! Did Battousai get his breakfast?" Tae asked, a worried expression on her face. "Yes Tae, I made sure he got it." Kaoru responded trying to be patient. "Are you positive?" Tae asked again. Kaoru gritted her teeth, if there was one thing she hated, it was being talked to like a child.

"Yes Miss Tae. I went into his room and set it down in front of him." Suddenly Kaoru could feel several pairs of eyes staring at her. A few gasps left some of the maids mouths.

"You mean...he _let_ you into his room? While he was there?" Tae whispered in a hushed tone. Kaoru blinked a few times, feeling confused. Why was this man such a huge deal to everyone?

"uh yeah...I didn't barge in or anything! he told me to come in!" Kaoru immediately defended herself.

"_amazing." _Tae seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. "Never has Battousai allowed anyone to join him in his room, usually we just set his breakfast in front of his door. Of course every once in a while we'll go in there to clean, but never while he's in there." Tae explained to Kaoru.

Kaoru didn't know what to say. Everyone had grown quiet, their eyes now moved from Kaoru to the floor. Hushed tones echoed throughout the room.

"You must be something special huh?"

A/N: ahh thank you all very much for the reviews! They were very helpful : ) I would have updated sooner, except I was in South Carolina for a week. I hope you enjoyed the second chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: don't own rk : (

And to me but the sea

Green is set so beautifully

Against your thoughtful face

That I must close my eyes

And turn my face

The garden. Where secrets reside, and sins are forgotten. This is where he retreated to, he spent most of his time here. It had been the only place that he felt was truly pure. Everywhere else reeked with hidden sins. He reeked with sin. Maybe that's why he spent so much time in this area, he felt that it balanced out all the evil that he's committed. He sat on the hard wooden bench, his eyes closed. His long thick eyelashes brushed against the skin under his eye. Battousai sat there meditating. It had become a daily routine for him. It was a windy day, and the air seemed to enjoy playing with his long coruscant hair.

He rested his head on the hilt of his blade. It seemed that this was the only position he could find remotely comfortable. He blinked a few times, the sun spilled between the cracks in his bangs, causing him to squint. He was not used to the sun. If anything he was nocturnal. Something soft and comforting was brushing against his ears. _What was that?_ He could feel it in his ears, in his eyes, and in his hair. He could feel it pumping through his blood in his veins. Yet, he could feel nothing at all. He then turned around to notice he had company.

It was that new girl, sitting on a bench opposite the garden. Her head was bent down, her raven hair cascading in a ponytail, covering what he could see of her profile. He had sharp eyes, and although she was on the opposite side, he could see her lips vibrating as the sweet sound left her throat. She had been switching between singing and humming quietly to herself. She had been writing something down on a piece of paper in her lap. Battousai was not staring, he was observing.

That's when she lifted her head and turned to look at him. Battousai was a little taken aback, he had not expected her to feel his presence. She was merely a woman, how could she possibly feel his eyes on her? The moment she looked at him, he quickly turned his head around, silently cursing to himself. She was staring at him, and he knew it. He then felt body heat sit next to him, she had come over and sat next to him. On his bench. He gritted his teeth, who did this woman think she was?

"Did you like it?"

He slowly turned his head to face her. Her expression showed that she had not noticed how much trouble she was giving him.

"well?" she asked again. She was a persistent girl.

"Did I like what?"

She looked down at her lap, playing with her fingers. She seemed to be nervous.

"The song." _ah, she was writing a song._

"I don't know." maybe if he was blunt she would leave him alone.

She had not been expecting that answer, he could see in her eyes that she was surprised. She was much too easy to read. Her eyes quickly changed from confusion to anger. Her face grew a little pink, he could tell she had a temper.

"how could you _not_ know if you like something? That's just ridiculous." Kaoru could already feel herself losing her temper, and tried her best to contain it. The only response she got was a smirk. Kaoru let out a huff and continued to scratch down notes on her notebook. Battousai had expected her to get up and leave at this point. It appeared that the one person Battousai had failed to scare off was a young woman. He did not like this, no he did not like this at all.

"How am I supposed to know if I like something that I never took the time to listen to?" Battousai retorted back. He usually kept smart-ass remarks like this inside his head, but for some reason he felt the need to express what he was thinking to the stubborn musician.

He could tell that he was making her frustrated, which he found unusually amusing. She clenched her fists on top of her notebook.

"Well then you can tell me what you think of it when you hear it." Kaoru shot back, picking up her pen to continue writing. Battousai said nothing. Kaoru immediately regretted losing her temper, that was something she needed to work on. Even if he had acted completely vile to her, she was determined to get to know this man better, considering they would be living together from now on.

"Oh, I forgot to thank you the other day, for saving me from that fall." This time she didn't bother looking up from her notebook, and said it as nonchalantly as possible. Why was this girl so set on making friends with _him_? Shouldn't she be galavanting with the other woman giggling and whispering? It infuriated him. He was here to kill, not socialize.

"you're welcome"

Kaoru smiled to herself, pleased that she had gotten a response. She managed to gather enough courage to lift her head and take a glance at the strange man. His head was bent down, and he closed his eyes. She couldn't get a good look at his face with all the red hair covering it.

"Battousai! Katsura wishes to see you" a voice boomed out, startling Kaoru. She still had her eyes set on Battousai as he stood up. For the first time Kaoru had been able to get a good look at him, seeing every feature sculpted on his face. The sun beamed on his face, the light capturing every angle on his body. Kaoru felt her heart stop and her breathing cease. The wind had blown his red hair out of his face and the sun reflected in his eyes. It was at this moment Kaoru realized how truly handsome Battousai was. She finally understood why all the maids seemed to shrink in his presence. She felt her cheeks heat up, and knew her face had probably gone completely red.

"oh uh...Goodbye Battousai" Kaoru quickly blurted out, remembering her manners. He looked down at her and gave a quick nod and turned around to see Katsura. Kaoru reached up to feel her burning cheek. She had never felt this flustered before.

She quickly shook the feeling off by diving back into her latest song. But there was still that lingering feeling in the back of her mind as she closed her notebook, and left the garden behind, the garden where secrets reside.

A/N: yes! up to 3 chapters : ) Reviews are what inspires me to continue, thank you all who have enjoyed my story. I would've updated sooner but my wifi was down for a while : ( but it's back up now!


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